Does Ferrari underestimate the seriousness of the problems?

The defeat in Bahrain should be quite a wake-up call for Ferrari, because Red Bull had a convincing superiority in almost all areas. At the same time, Frederic Vasseur, the new head of the Scuderia, does not try to dramatize the situation, but is he right to attribute the failure in the first phase of the season mainly to problems with the settings?

A year ago the red cars were the fastest on the Bahrain circuit, last weekend Charles Leclerc retired due to problems with the power plant and Carlos Sainz finished fourth. In 2022, the problems for the Scuderia started later in the season, when the team had to reduce power from the engines to avoid further retirements, and attempts to somehow increase chassis efficiency only led to admitted that the car began to consume rubber resources faster than rival vehicles.

But now the problems started in the first Grand Prix. However, Vasser somehow tries to reassure fans: “The question is not in the concept underlying the SF-23, but in the settings. In my entire career I have never seen a car that was fast for just one lap, but was unable to maintain a high pace in the race. I am sure that the updates we are preparing will be quite effective.”

But so far, the facts do not support that optimism. While the Red Bull car was clearly faster in qualifying, with Max lapping 0.973 seconds faster on Saturday than a year ago, Leclerc managed to add “only” 0.558 seconds to his pole position in the SF-23 in 2022.

Ferrari believes that if Charles had made another attempt in the qualifying final, he could have won pole position. Mark Genet, the ambassador of the Italian brand, also speaks about this, and Vasseur is also sure that the speed of the car should have allowed this. However, Ferrari opted to keep a set of soft tires for the race. In theory, Leclerc could only claim third place, but he could not hold this position, it was not possible to control: he retired on lap 39.

Verstappen was already well ahead at the time – at the second pit stop he brought the advantage to more than twenty seconds. At the same time, he covered almost two-thirds of the distance on rolled soft tires, and it was not until lap 36 that he switched to Hard. And in Ferrari they were forced to go on hard tires in the second and third segments – simply because the car did not allow the same tactical plan that Red Bull preferred.

“The Soft-Soft-Hard option would have been impossible for us,” Vasser admitted.

On the straights, the Ferrari car was only slightly faster, but the SF-23 got a smaller rear wing for that. Red Bull, on the other hand, could easily afford to add downforce to the rear of the car, so in slow and medium corners the RB19 had a clear advantage.

Jock Klia, chief race engineer at Ferrari, looking for some advantages, commented on the results of the Bahrain Grand Prix: “The fact that we were able to increase the maximum speed is important for the drivers, at least psychologically. If an opponent overtakes you on the straights because his car is a few km/h faster, it’s uncomfortable. And when you can add, you’re not afraid to miss him on the brakes and you can attack yourself effectively.

But the fact remains: the Red Bull car allows Verstappen and Perez to save rubber, and the tires of the Ferrari SF-23 almost burn out. Wasser believes this is also due to the characteristics of the road surface: “This track has extremely abrasive asphalt and many areas where acceleration occurs. All this only exacerbates the problems.”

In theory, the picture in Jeddah may be different. The Saudi Arabian Grand Prix has a higher load on the front tires, so the teams will adjust the settings. Anyway, Ferrari, if they want to improve the situation, they have to act quickly. If a team claims to be winning, there should be no areas where it is noticeably inferior to rivals.